Cotswold Archaeology recognised for remembering the fallen
- DATE WRITTEN:
- READING TIME: 4 minutes
- AUTHORS: Candice ‘Niki’ Wachtel (Community Engagement Archaeologist)
Over the past three years, Cotswold Archaeology has been developing a partnership with the United States Government department Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). This partnership has so far involved three separate missions, using archaeological methods to recover US military personnel killed during World War II.
While the human remains recovery is the focus of these missions, they encompass so much more. Each of these excavations is driven by the involvement of hundreds of volunteers – local community members, active-duty US armed forces, and British military veterans from Operation Nightingale – generating collaborative on-site work.
Beyond the hard-working team, there is wider engagement – through digital media, national and international press, and television broadcasts sharing the stories of our MIAs; collaborations with local museums to display aircraft wreckage in remembrance; and school site visits and information packs that will help keep the stories of the war generation alive, for decades to come
Under the diligent, dedicated, and innovative leadership of Rosanna Price (Engagement Manager), these sites, and our emphasis on community engagement, have now been recognised with two separate awards.
In September 2024, our team joined the DPAA to search for Lt John Fisher, whose B-17 crashed during the Operation Aphrodite missions of 1944. The excavation combined technical capability with sensitivity, as archaeologists and volunteers worked side-by-side in an attempt to recover John, whilst honouring his memory. The DPAA have recognised this shared effort with a Certificate of Appreciation, thanking the team for the compassion and professionalism shown throughout the project.
Artefacts recovered from the site have been shared with museums both in England and the United States, including Lt Fisher’s hometown museum and the National Museum of the United States Air Force, ensuring John’s story will continue to be told on both sides of the Atlantic.
Team Archaeologist and military veteran Duncan Andrews has created a memorial plaque for Fisher, now on display at Sudbourne church, close to the crash site. The plaque was dedicated by the local vicar, a veteran herself, at a service in September.
Rosanna was also presented with a Certificate of Recognition from the US House of Representatives, acknowledging her dedication to organising a memorial event for the crew of Little Boy Blue, held on the 80th anniversary of the crash in which 8 of the 10 airmen were killed. Little Boy Blue was our first site with the DPAA, and the memorial was made possible through the invaluable efforts of Rosanna and the landowner, Steve Honeywood.
The event brought together families from across the United States to honour their loved ones and to dedicate a permanent memorial, blessed by the Bishop of Dunwich, on the Suffolk field where most of the crew were lost.
The service afforded families the chance to meet, share stories, and find some peace for the sacrifice of the crew. You can visit the permanent memorial on the site to pay respects, take quiet contemplation, and reflect on the experiences of those who lived through both world wars.
As our partnership with the DPAA continues to grow, we are grateful for these acts of recognition, but even more so for the opportunity to take part in such meaningful work and to contribute to the DPAA’s moving and humbling mission. These sites hold such a powerful connection to us all, evoking what it means to be human, and how necessary it is to not only remember history but to find meaning through it.
It is crucial that we continue to connect local and global communities through our work, promoting the human impact of conflict and ensuring the memory of the fallen is not lost to time.
